Page 78 of Love JD

Seriously, call me in 5 min. or I’m coming back

“I mean, I’m mostly joking,” Starla muttered. “I knew you’d blow the whistle eventually.”

Sighing, I set my phone on the polished walnut table. “What do you want?”

Starla’s sapphire blue eyes widened a fraction in surprise. “Shit. You’re really not happy with me.”

“You were kind of an asshole the last time we talked,” I reminded her.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, folding her arms over the crisp, black-and-white suit that hugged her slim build. “Our firm is struggling. I just didn’t want to lose this thing.”

“My job is literally on the line here.” I rolled my chair away from her. “Is that all you wanted to say?”

Her perfectly proportioned features drooped. “Zev.”

I picked up my phone again, pointedly ignoring her. Isla hadn’t responded. What if she fainted just now? How many times has she fainted since I've been gone? Has she gotten hurt?

“Zev,” Starla snarled, standing away from the table. “Is that really it? You’re just done with me? With six years of us?”

“There is no ‘us,’” I replied coldly. I felt as much affection for Starla as I did for the moss on the wall behind us. I hoped she lived well and stayed healthy. That was about it. “You said my problem was that I had a bleeding heart,” I said, standing and straightening my navy-blue blazer. I met her gaze. “But I think you lost yours somewhere. I hope you find it.”

I left her gawking and hoped to God that put an end to whatever she thought there was left between us. As I stepped out of the boardroom and into the carpeted hallway, I dialed Isla. It rang three times before she picked up.

“Hey,” she rasped.

She did not sound good. “Hey,” I replied cautiously. “What’s going on? Everything okay over there?”

“Yeah.” She sounded breathless. Weak.

I ran through what I could say that wouldn’t set off all her defense mechanisms. “Tell me how to help.”

Silence stretched between us like taffy, pulling and pulling and getting thinner with each second. Finally, she breathed out, “Did you lose your job?”

My heart squeezed painfully. Had she been worrying about that all weekend? “No, I didn’t lose my job. I mean, I know I’m the world’s worst lawyer—we did establish that. But I managed to hang onto my reputation.”

She coughed out a laugh. It sounded so dry and breathy that I was two seconds away from bolting out of Earth Care and making my last statement a total lie. She sighed softly. “Good. I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I paced a few steps, meandering down the hall with nervous energy.

“Just… the reporter. That was my bad.”

“It wasn’t,” I argued fiercely. “Isla, I’m not kidding around right now. Do not put that on yourself. That chick is a psycho, and she approached me in Salt Lake when we weren’t even around each other. She was interested in me, not you. And I’m handling it. Everything is fine over here.”

“Okay,” she said. Why did her voice sound so lifeless?

I gripped the phone tightly. “Isla, video chat with me.”

“I’m not dressed,” she huffed.

“And?” I demanded, checking my watch. It was four-twenty. I could catch a flight tonight and be back in Denver before it was too late.

“I’m fine, Zev,” she gusted out.

“You sound like shit,” I snapped. “Tell me the truth.”

Silence again. Finally, her voice broke as she said, “Don’t, Zev. Please don’t leave. I’m okay.”

Click, click, click, snap. That combination in my chest, that ratcheting that had plagued me for weeks finally settled. And I knew what it had opened, what I’d barely resisted fighting all along. Now that the feeling was splayed open and bare for me to grasp, I had no choice but to accept it. I loved Isla Valehart.

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